What’s in the box this week?

(Listed from shortest shelf life to longest shelf life. If you have any particularly good storage tips please let me know so that I can share with everyone.)

Romaine or Red Leaf Lettuce: Store in the crisper in a plastic bag.
Red Russian Kale: This veg and cold weather love each other, the red tinge in the leaves turns the greens sweet. If you have never eaten kale raw just one taste is all I ask. Store in the crisper
Bok Choy:Great for stir fry’s, we also add them to soups. Store in the crisper.
Celeriac: Our celery succumbed to the freeze but this crop came through just fine. For Thanksgiving Lorraine mixed potatoes and celeriac with lots of butter and cream into the most delicious mashed potatoes. Store in the crisper.
Baby Tadorna Leeks:The selection of this variety of leeks was not under my control as it was a group purchase with Riverdog, Terra Firma and Full Belly Farm. They wanted leeks good for the wholesale market and stores. This year we have ordered our own and I have at least four varieties selected. These have longer white shanks and I think they should have improved flavor. Store in your crisper.
Green Cabbage: Store in the crisper.
Carrots: From Terra Firma in winters. Our carrots are still small and we just do n to have sandy enough soil to germinate them well. We always grow delicious carrots but getting a crop to germinate is our main problem. Store in the crisper.
Butternut Squash: Always a reliable crop here on the farm. Next year we will have a nice cosy warm dome for the butternuts to live in. They like 50F and will keep well into May. Our big project going forward is the farm buildings, we need secure storage for all our stuff. We will have to do it in stage which is why the domes work so well for us.
Satsuma Mandarins:From Bill Crepps in Winters. The paperwork of organic farming drives Bill crazy so he is not certified. That does not change how he farms. The taste tells us he is organic and I have known Bill for many years.
Pomelos: From our own trees these have come through the freeze in good condition. there is some ugly marks on the outside but as we all know what on the inside is what counts.
I hope you all had a great holiday break. I had all my children with me so I was very happy. I also had lots of seed catalogs that arrive in the mail in December so I spent quite some time looking for new things to grow and new varieties. I am very excited about the year ahead. We have made some great strides in 2013 and hope to go further this coming year.
In the next few weeks we will be putting up the event schedule for the year on the website.
Please encourage your friends and co workers to consider joining your farm. Great food from a good source, where you can visit and see how it is grown is not a luxury but a necessity for a healthy body and environment…. Nigel